Can Reducing Plate Size Affect Obesity in Children?

Posted by on April 11th, 2013 | No Comments
A surprisingly good parenting tipFull article from TIME magazine: http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/08/size-matters-smaller-dishes-could-cut-childhood-obesity/
A study published in the journal Pediatrics discloses that Temple University researchers reduced the calories children consumed just by giving them smaller plates.

Childhood obesity is rampant in the US. We super-size everything. However, the incidence of diabetes and heart disease among children has increased dramatically with increasing rates of obesity.

Since prior studies found that adults using smaller bowls and spoons helped diminish food intake, the Temple scientists decided to investigate if using smaller plates helped fight the growing problem with childhood obesity.

The researchers found that when given adult-size dinner plates, the children served themselves larger portions of food. The larger portions resulted in nearly 50 percent of the extra calories they had put on their plates. According to the study, 80 percent of the kids served themselves 90 calories more at lunch when using the adult-sized plates.

“This provides new evidence that children’s self-served portion sizes are influenced by size-related facets of their eating environments, which, in turn, may influence children’s energy intake,” the authors wrote in the Pediatrics.

As the famous chef Julia Child (who lived to be 92 eating highly calorie food) noted, it’s all about portion control and moderation.

Full article from TIME magazine: http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/08/size-matters-smaller-dishes-could-cut-childhood-obesity/

Size Matters: Smaller Dishes Could Cut Childhood Obesity | TIME.com
healthland.time.com
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What You Should Know About Vitamin D

Posted by on February 22nd, 2013 | No Comments

The study was published the September 1, 2012 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Is it related to good health?

Vitamin D is often called “the sunshine vitamin” because the body can synthesize it from cholesterol when sun exposure is adequate. Children don’t spend much time outdoors any longer. They have little or no recess. From school they go to dance class, karate, or home to sit in front of the TV or computer. Can we postulate that less time outdoors may contribute to lesser vitamin D levels?

Canadian researchers report a greater prevalence of deficient vitamin D levels in children hospitalized with critical illnesses. The study was published the September 1, 2012 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

J. Dayre McNally, MD, and colleagues examined vitamin D levels in 326 critically ill children between the ages of six months and thirteen years who were admitted to the intensive care units of six Canadian hospitals. Sixty-nine percent of the group had deficient vitamin D levels. McNally is a clinical researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa.

Vitamin D deficiency was associated with longer intensive care unit (ICU) stays and increased Pediatric Risk of Mortality scores, which are used to evaluate illness severity. While five deaths occurred among the deficient group during their ICU admissions, no deaths occurred in those who were not deficient in vitamin D.

“This study provides evidence that vitamin D deficiency is both common among critically ill children and associated with greater severity of critical illness.” Further research will determine whether targeted vitamin D supplementation or rapid restoration will improve outcome.”

The Canadian study examined children with critical illnesses. It may or may not be appropriate to extrapolate it to children with non-critical illnesses. However, it is safe to say that activity outside will create vitamin D levels that can keep us healthy.

J. Dayre McNally, MD, is a clinical researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa.

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Exercise and ADHD

Posted by on February 20th, 2013 | No Comments

Reported study published in the Journal of Pediatrics
Knowing this may help you maintain all of your holiday sanity!

A small study published in the Journal of Pediatrics finds that a few minutes of exercise a day can help children with ADHD focus better and could reduce the need for medication.

The study included 40 children aged eight to ten years (20 with ADHD and 20 children without). The researchers wanted to know if 20 minutes of energetic walking on a treadmill might make a significant difference to an ADHD child’s ability to pay attention.

Once the treadmill work was completed, the children then undertook a short math test and reading comprehension test. They also participated in a computer assessment of their ability to ignore distractions.

All of the children performed better on both tests after exercising.

In a university news release, assistant professor of kinesiology at Michigan State University and lead author of the study, Matthew Pontifex said, “This provides some very early evidence that exercise might be a tool in our non-pharmaceutical treatment of ADHD.”

“Maybe our first course of action that we would recommend to developmental psychologists would be to increase children’s physical activity.”

So, during the upcoming holidays, don’t let them sit in front of a TV, computer, or video console too long. Tell them to get outside and play! It will help them focus and help keep you happy!

Resources: Journal of Pediatrics
Matthew Pontifex, assistant professor of kinesiology at Michigan State University and lead author of the study.

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New Study Finds ADHD Rates on Rise

Posted by on January 25th, 2013 | No Comments

The study, published in Monday’s issue of JAMA Pediatrics, examined health records from California and found that rates of ADHD have jumped by 24% since 2001.

“That is a very significant increase,” says Darios Getahun, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Group who conducted the study.

Many experts theorize that the rise in diagnoses can possibly be attributed by growing awareness of the condition. If one were cynical, one could also point out the increased rate of marketing for ADHD medications. Let’s not be blind; ADHD is a multi-billion dollar business to the pharmaceutical industry.

Kaiser Permanente reviewed the health records of more than 840,000 children, ages 5-11, and also found that boys were three times more likely to be diagnosed than girls. The cynic might say that boys are more boisterous than girls. They display greater signs of hyperactivity.

“I don’t agree with the language about ‘epidemic’ proportions [in the study] and ‘dramatic’ increases,” says Paul Hammerness, an ADHD expert at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It is my impression that absolute rates are fairly stable over time, from country to country as well.”

One must always question whether we are allowing children to be children or trying to mold them through medication.

Suggested reading: The Last Normal Child: Essays on the Intersection of Kids, Culture, and Psychiatric Drugs (Childhood in America) [Lawrence H. Diller M.D.] on Amazon.com.

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Is ADHD all in your head?

Posted by on July 19th, 2010 | Comments off

A study published in the June 14 edition of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics has sparked controversy regarding ADHD medication and the brain’s power to regulate itself.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and conducted by Dr. Adrian Sandler, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and medical director of the Olson Huff Center for Child Development at Mission Children’s Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.  The research was performed over the course of eight years using 99 patients from Western North Carolina.

Sandler found that children with ADHD can do just as well on half their medication when the medication is combined with a placebo. They performed as well even when parents and children had full knowledge they were taking a placebo.

[Placebo --  A substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient's expectation to get well. The placebo in this research was akin to a harmless inert pill].

Previous studies have shown that common stimulant medication causes side-effects like tics, weight loss, stunted growth, and even heart complications in some instances. This often causes trepidation in parents afraid of the possible side-effects on their children.

Sandler compared fully medicated children, children on reduced medication, and children on reduced medication with a known placebo. The results were quite intriguing.  Both the fully medicated and reduced medication groups had increased side-effects while the reduced medication with placebo demonstrated decreased side-effects. Furthermore, the reduced medication group reported decreased control of their ADHD symptoms. However, the control of ADHD symptoms was no different in the reduced medication with placebo group than in the full dose group, i.e. the reduced medication with placebo performed as well as the fully medicated group with less side-effects as well.

“I’ve been getting a lot of calls and e-mails,” said Sandler,, who conducted the research with James Bodfish, a professor in the departments of psychiatry and pediatrics at UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and study coordinator Corrine Glesne.

“Medications work,” Bodfish said in a statement. “The question is whether we always need to use them at the highest dose. Many parents are concerned about placing their child on medication. Some choose not to treat their child because of concerns about side effects.”

While the research doesn’t address it, the obvious question is, Why? Parents and children in this study knew they were taking a placebo. Why then did they perform as well as their peers without the side-effects — at essentially half the dose as their peers? While the placebo effect has been studied widely, the exact mechanisms are unknown. We do know that the mechanism is governed by the brain. This clearly tells us that having ADHD or not, our brain is still a powerful weapon in our arsenal.

We also cannot exclude the influence of the parents during this research. Did they expect their child to do better? The authors suggest that this was so. This dynamic cannot be overlooked in your family either.

The bottom line is that we likely have far more control over our behaviors and cognitive processes than we are given credit for. Modern medicine, as this research suggests, is just beginning to understand the brain’s role in shaping our lives. We’ve known this for years at Play Attention. Cognitive training. Memory training. Motor skills. Attention training. Behavioral shaping. It’s time to take control over our lives. We’ve all got the power to do it. It lies right behind our eyes.

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New research on attention and video games

Posted by on July 6th, 2010 | Comments off

Research published in the July issue of Pediatrics reveals that too much time spent watching television and playing video games can cause attention problems.

A graduate student at Iowa State University, Edward Swing, found that excessive screen time, whether in front of a computer or TV, could double the risk of attention problems in children and young adults.

Swing’s research confirms previous findings from Dr. Dimitri Christakis, the George Adkins Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle.  Christakis’ research found that faster-paced shows increased the risk of attention problems.  "You prime the mind to accept that pace. Real life doesn’t happen fast enough to keep your attention,” says Christakis.

The  American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has long recommended that children over the age of 2 view less than two hours of TV or computer per day. Prior to that age, they suggest no TV viewing or computer.

Swing compared data of 1300 children in grades three, four, and five who watched TV or played video games less than two hours a day to children who watched more.  He found that more video time could nearly double the risk of attention problems in children and young adults

"The children were reporting their TV and video game use and the parents were also reporting TV and video game use," Swing said. "The teachers were reporting attention problems," he said of the middle school students.

While both Swing’s and Christakis’ studies do merit attention, they are quite limited.  For example, Swing used teacher rating reports to assess whether children had problems paying attention, if they interrupted classmate’s work, if they had trouble staying on task, or showed problems in other areas related to inattention. Teacher reports typically vary over time and from teacher to teacher. They are also highly subjective. To account for this, Swing had more than one teacher rate the children and that the ratings tended to be in agreement.

The greatest flaw in this research is that Swing did not account for content, i.e. what were the students watching or playing? Were the students watching educational TV or playing educational games? Were they playing race car games? Shooting games? Were they playing problem solving games?  Were the games fast paced? Slow? Did they require reasoning skills? We’ll never know and that’s problematic because it leaves so many questions unanswered. As we are what we eat, we are what we stimulate ourselves with.

"These media aren’t going away," Christakis said. "We do have to find ways to manage them appropriately."  On this I can agree. Limiting time to the AAP recommendations is prudent parenting.

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